Triple Negative ---- Tamoxifen

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Tabatha00
Tabatha00 Member Posts: 133
edited June 2014 in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

O.k. scan somebody answer me this...........if you have ER/PR + breast cancer and you can take Tamoxifen doesn't that just prevent a RECURRENCE to the other breast?   I don't think it actually prevents recurrence anywhere else does it?

So, if we are ER/PR - and we have double mastectomies does that not level the playing field a little bit?   If we fret over not being able to take Tamoxifen that would be for someone who WANTED to keep their breasts.   I'm not keeping mine.......they are misbehaving so they are getting the heave ho!   lol

I think Tamoxifen and those other drugs prevent cancer from coming back in the OTHER breast so if we don't have any breasts and we are ER/PR - don't all our chances at recurrence remain about the same?

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited June 2009

    I think Tamox. inhibits all tumor growth that is fed by estrogen.  From what I understand the docs are less concerned about local recurrence (in the breast) then systemic recurrence (else where in the body) and the tamox. should work on inhibiting both. Cut off what feeds the tumor - anywhere in the body, and inhibit the growth.  

    Now, I could be wrong as I have yet to start tamox. My oncologist describes it as a secondary line of defense (primary being chemotherapy).  

    I will be interested in hearing what others know - I am reading up on tamox. so your post caught my eye - as I will be starting that in the near future.

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  • FloridaLady
    FloridaLady Member Posts: 2,155
    edited June 2009

    aprilgirl is right.  Tamox treats the receptor for hormone positive bc.  You turn off the rececptor than this should stop all the cancer from growing back.  This is why hormone positive is most of the time easier to treat because they kniow what makes it grow. TN means they are not quite sure why we do what we do.  Also remember not all TN ladies are the same.  They just know we are not hormone+ or her2+.

    Flalady

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  • lexislove
    lexislove Member Posts: 2,645
    edited June 2009

    Tamoxifen helps with preventing a recurrence of the original BC either locally or metastatically. It also helps reduce the recurrence of developing a NEW breast cancer in the other breast (if you have chosen a uni lateral mastectomy)

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  • smithlme
    smithlme Member Posts: 1,322
    edited June 2009

    So, again, I am that "fluke." My first BC was triple negative and I had a unilateral mastectomy, DD AC followed by DD Taxol. 7 1/2 months after I ended chemo I was diagnosed the second time with a new primary, DCIS, that was ER+/PR-. If I would have taken Tamoxifen would it have prevented my ER+ second diagnosis?

    Linda

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  • Analemma
    Analemma Member Posts: 1,622
    edited June 2009

    There's no way to tell if it would have prevented the second bc.  It would not have treated the first.  And there's no way to have tamoxifen prescribed prophylactically.  It would be just like any woman with normal risk taking it.

    Triple negative BC is really a misnomer - you can't define something by what it's not.  The problem is that we don't know what it IS, and can't therefore develop treatments.  There have been I believe five subtypes of triple negative disease determinied, but not understood enough to learn what is driving the growth. 

    Tabatha, your original question, sorry, is incorrect.  Wouldn't that be great, if all we had to do was to cut off our breasts to avoid tn recurrence?  Don't you think that would be recommended for us all, if it worked?  In fact triple negatives recur more often in distant organs than in the breast, and cells move not just through the lymph system, but the blood stream (vascular invasion).  Once the cancer cells are in the bloodstream they can travel all over, not just to the other breast.

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